COLUMN: Cycling for Diversity sees fifth year

The Cycling4Diversity team finished its 11-city tour with 15 schools during Cyling4Diversity Week from May 17 to 23.

The first two days of our four-day trip took us to five Okanagan communities and six schools. The main message of our ride was to encourage students to embrace diversity and to do one positive act during the week.

The makeup of diversity is very different in the Okanogan compared to the Lower Mainland. School principals and mayors from the various communities cycled with us to our locations.

The Cycling4Diversity Foundation also celebrated its fifth year, surpassing 100 schools and visiting every community from Vancouver to Chilliwack, including Victoria and the Okanagan. This could not have been done without many of our team members and community sponsors.

I was recently asked if C4D has made has made a difference.

Hearing the responses from teachers, parents and students I would have to say our team has made a difference and our organization is growing in a positive direction.

This year we were fortunate to be able to have Abbotsford Police Det. Roy McBeth, who joined us for two days. He delivered a powerful and emotional message about how his son had some struggles in school and how the other children joined him in helping him finish a race around the track. He also shared about getting a kidney from his boss, who was able to donate a part of his kidney, giving McBeth a second chance. Through this experience he shared that we’re all the same inside and bleed red.

Harjit Sajjan, a lieutenant-colonel in the Canadian military, who joined us for the first day said, “I realized that a shared experience can really light up a kid’s day.”

As he was recounting his experiences in Bosnia, a pair of students mentioned they grew up in the Balkan country. Sajjan addressed them with the country’s traditional greeting and watched them light up – transforming from timid and shy into smiling and happy.

“Being different is unique and being unique gives us strength.”

Now, that we’ve met our first milestone, I feel the best is still yet to come for C4D.